Colorado Democrats want to subdue the Constitution by eliminating the Electoral College

Colorado Democrats, reeling from the 2016 electoral trouncing of Hillary Clinton, want to subdue the 12th Amendment and elect presidents by popular vote.

Democratic state Sens. Mike Foote, Emily Sirota and Jeni James Arndt made their first order of business the introduction of Senate Bill 19-042 “to elect the president of the United States by national popular vote.”

All compact states and the District are solidly Democratic and gave all of their combined 172 votes to Clinton in 2016 under the 12th Amendment process.

With Colorado, the compact would have 181 combined votes pledged to all future popular vote winners.

As explained by the National Conference of State Legislatures, the compact would need membership totaling 270 electoral votes — the amount needed to elect a president — “before the compact kicks in and any state’s bill could take effect.”

By enacting SB 42, Colorado would pledge to give all of its electoral votes to whichever candidate wins the popular vote nationally — without regard for the will of Colorado voters. If Colorado favors a Democrat, and a Republican wins the nationwide popular vote, all 9 electoral votes would go to the Republican. And, vice versa. Litigation would rightly ensue.

This asinine proposal challenges almost 250 years of protection from potential tyranny of special-interest population clusters. Five of 45 presidents, starting with John Quincy Adams in 1824, have taken office after losing the popular vote.

Former President and founder of the Constitution James Madison feared honoring a nationwide popular vote would empower special interest “factions.” It would authorize them to trample on small states and harm the entire country. French historian and political scientist Alexis de Tocqueville called it “tyranny of the majority.”

In the ongoing moronization of our culture, schools and colleges avoid teaching the country’s founding principles. Parents and teachers use “democracy” as a symbol of patriotic virtue. We hear it on the left, right, and in between. Never mind the fact Madison and other founders considered democracy a dangerous concept to be used with limitation.

The religious right extolled the virtue of popular opinion and “democracy” when Colorado voters enacted Proposition 2 in 1992, eliminating rights of homosexuals to claim protected status against discrimination. Courts struck it down, negating the authority of voters to deprive individuals the equal protections assured by the Constitution.

When California voters passed Proposition 8 to outlawed same-sex marriage, advocates defended “democracy” and respect for the popular vote. The Gazette’s editorial board explained how voters have no authority to prevent consenting adults from contracting in marriage. Federal courts concluded the same.

Majorities can’t take a contrarian’s freedom of speech, they can’t take a person’s gun, and they can’t take the rights of individuals to freely associate in intimate relationships.

Just as individuals are not subjects of anything-goes majority whim, neither are states. Each state is a member of the union. To respect state sovereignty, the Constitution balances the interests of sparsely populated rural states and those of densely populated urban states. It does not hold nationwide majority will as righteous.

Populations of large cities coalesce around common regional interests and values that are often contrary to the interests and values of people in sparsely populated rural states. San Francisco residents might outlaw coal for the country overnight, if given the option, and West Virginia might starve. Urban residents don’t like pesticides; conventional farmers need them.

Metropolitan New York City contains 40 times the population of Wyoming and the regions have little in common. Metropolitan Denver’s population outnumbers residents in 16 states and the District of Columbia.

If a popular vote reigns, only a few dense urban regions will elect all presidents. Candidates will win by appealing to the special interests of Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Seattle, Chicago, Boston, Denver, Washington, D.C., and a handful of other metros that consider the rest of the country a wasteland of rubes and deplorables clinging to bibles and guns. Tiny geographic slivers of the country will determine elections for a majority of states and most of the country’s landscape.

77 Comments

The electoral college was established as a compromise between a straight majority vote of citizens and having Congress select the President. Its time has passed. This shouldn’t be a partisan issue. It causes politicians to focus on 8 states exclusively and my GOP vote in California means nothing. Get rid of it.

Your vote gets lost in the muck of Liberal votes by demented Liberal voters who worship vermin like Nancy Pelosi and Maxine Waters.The electoral college prevents large states from electing a President against the will of a majority of smaller states.
This country would be destroyed by deranged Liberal Democrats in California and New York if it weren’t for the electoral college.

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Rookie49er

9:05 am January 10, 2019 at 9:05 am

Absolutely correct! If not for the electoral college, tens of thousands of votes would be meaningless, fewer and fewer people would vote, and our country would be run like a dictatorship.

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ltuser

3:32 pm January 10, 2019 at 3:32 pm

Add to that, as the article writer showed. IF THEY WENT to a national vote, even if everyone in your state voted for person A, but the rest of the country went for B< that would make ALL the votes from your state meaningless too.. SO Tee Flo's concern would be "Screw the masses because i don't want to be screwed" it seems.

You might try doing a little research. The electoral college has nothing to do with a compromise between a straight majority vote and having congress select the president. It was wisely added to the constitution to prevent the more populated states from running over the smaller states in general elections. It makes politicians focus on ALL states, and not just the 8 most populated. If not for the electoral college, we would now be suffering under a hillary presidency.

Exactly Bait. Take the populations of CA, OR, WA, NY, FL, both Carolinas, and every other state up the eastern seaboard. THOSE STATES ALONE would outnumber the votes of EVERY OTHER STATE combined. So if we ever did go to just a popular vote, ONLY THOSE states votes would really matter.. the rest of the country could be ignored.

And since the entire west coast is solidly commucrat, and so is a sizable chunk of “new England” (Ny through maine), that gives almost 8 states right there, to the dems… leaving only Norfolk, South/North Carolina, Georgia and Florida to fight over.. BUT the populations of THOSE states won’t overide Ca/WA/Or/NY/MA/MI/PA and the rest…

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chrose

3:39 pm January 10, 2019 at 3:39 pm

And the goal is to takeover our Republic into a communist state. No way, Jose! Sad that so many disrespect our rights and our Constitution/Bill of Rights, and the thoughtful Amendments to protect us against these idiots. Sad to see many of the colonies who fought and died to make us a Republic of freedom and rights, and now so many have become turncoats by drinking the kool-aid of communism and undoubtedly many haven’t a clue that the DNC announced in their published 1963 Communist Manifesto to take us over. Sad with 6 1/2 decades of DNC educational systems owned by it has lead to grandparents, parents and today’s students not being taught anything in Civic and definitely not our Constitution/Bill of Rights/Declaration of Independence and so ill-informed think losing freedom and rights is a good thing. Some will learn that they have been duped and the others will never admit they are stupid and ignorant about the very country that allows them to even think of this crap.

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ltuser

11:25 pm January 10, 2019 at 11:25 pm

Chrose, even when its THEIR rights getting trampled on, i fear many of these commucrat idiots, being churned out by colleges, will STILL cheer along.

Tee Flo, I’ve read enough of your comments that I don’t believe for a minute that you cast a Republican vote but even if you did, you are the perfect example of why red states don’t want Californians moving in.

Even those who really do vote GOP are very liberal and the first thing they want to do is turn their new red state into California.

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elderal

11:27 am January 10, 2019 at 11:27 am

Californians have already or in the process of ruining Oregon, Washington, and Idaho. Silicon Valley techies are working to pervert Texas into another socialist state. (They already control Travis County, where the capitol is.)

California is a cancer; spreading and threatening to become more fatal to America in general. California is famous for its fruits and nuts…and I’m not talking about agricultural products. (Earthquake anyone?)

L.A. county ALONE has a greater population than all but 8 states. Should we let uber-liberal L/A. county rule the U.S.? In a democracy, if the majority vote to take your house, car, and children, they can. In a Republic, which the U.S. is, and is guaranteed by the Constitution, your property is your own, and can’t be taken by the majority. I do not believe you are a conservative, or even a Republican, if you are diametrically opposed to the U.S. Constitution. “The United States shall guarantee to every state in this union a republican form of government” Article 4 Section 4, U.S. Constitution

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fubar22

11:44 am January 10, 2019 at 11:44 am

Progressives are anti- constitutionalists. They hate the constitution and would love to abolish it. The constitution has worked for over 240 some years, it limits the power of the federal government and protects states rights. What has happened to the Democratic Party in the last 20 years? It has become a socialist, anti-American party. Wake up democrats and quit voting for these progressives!

Typical democrats if they disagree with anything the want to ban or eliminate it. Tee Flo, you dems can’t get rid of the electoral college without an amendment to the constitution which takes 2/3 of the states to propose it and 3/4 of the states to ratify it , goof luck on that one and by the way ya can’t impeach a president just because ya don’t like him

Wrong! The electoral college was established in order to prevent large population centers from running over rural areas. Take a look at that map again–the majority of the country, by county, votes Republican. Yet, the democrat party has a gerrymandered advantage of 84 automatic votes because of California and New York (and the rampant voter fraud which continues to suppress Republican votes in those states–but that’s a different topic). The electoral college prevents the tyranny of the majority by giving diminishing returns to extremely high population centers, like NYC and Los Angeles.

I live in California as well and feel as though my vote is a throw away. But, I do see the electoral college as the best way for electing our president. It keeps cities like LA, San Francisco, Chicago and New York from enforcing their views on the rest of the US.

Tee Flo: You need to read the article much closer and then study history to learn why it is the best way to elect a president we have. Also while you are about it, read the Constitution to understand why our Government has the best system – I read it annually so I don’t lose sight of our strength and our gift to the world.

While the Electoral College has its flaws, which better system could you propose?

Tee Flo, you might try reading some the Federalist Papers to gain some insight on why the Electoral College was created by the Founders. It was to create a balance between the Congress with 435 representatives who have two year terms, are elected in much smaller districts, and tend to change with the political winds, and the Senate with members who have six year terms, are elected statewide, and tend to be more “collegial”. The electoral college isn’t causing your California GOP vote not to count. How did it not count? Because you voted for Hillary or Bernie? This country NEVER was a Democracy. It was designed to be a representative democracy. Every time socialist progressives lose in elections they were sure they would win, this idiocy comes up. The electoral college has served America well. I sure don’t want Schmuckie and Pelosi determining a successor!

Yeah Flo,
So what you are saying is that the 10 largest cities in the USA will elect the President? Makes a LOT of sense to me (NOT).
The entire electoral vote process is there to SPECIFICALLY keep large populations that have special interest in power from being able to take over the entire country (especially very low density population areas) to ignore their needs.
I would rather go back to the original idea…that ONLY taxed real estate property owners can vote. That makes a LOT more sense than a “popular vote”. So far the ONLY thing that we are assured of is that those without property want freebies and demand the government support them. The issue is…that they are not paying for it but demanding OTHERS to pay for it. This is what “popular vote” gives us.

The electoral college has shown its value by keeping Hillary Rodham Hyphen Clinton out of the Presidency. Besides making politicians campaign in places other than NY and CA it levels out the illegal votes. See illegal aliens vote, but they are not counted in the census yet. That assures that electoral vote counts stay the same regardless of vote tampering. So lower races can be jimmied but the presidential race is harder to rig, otherwise Hillary would have it in the bag.

Leave the electoral college alone and return to earlier voting standards, vote one day, in person. No early, online, mailed in or harvested ballots.

The Electoral College is a Constitutional institution… the only way to eliminate it is to AMEND THE CONSTITITON… That takes 2/3rds of Congress to agree to the Amendment and 3/4ths of the States must ratify (approve any amendment) before it becomes Constitutional law. Not going to happen.

I doubt that the people who want to get rid of the electoral college have considered what may happen. That would open up the possibility of more than two parties (which may be a good thing), but then you may have 4 candidates who get 25% of the vote each. In their design, the candidate who gets 25%+1 vote is the winner. Do they really want that? I doubt it. We would have to do like France and have a runoff election for president to make this work. But, as said before, I doubt they really have thought about this change in a thoughtful manner.

This article had a lot of subtle liberal poison. Homosexual marriage is not a right it is a perversion of nature and was rightly voted against in California and the vote should have stuck. Perverts have the same equal protection as anyone else therefore Colorado’s 1992 vote was spot on. Eliminating the granting of homosexuals special protection was what that was about. Those would have been good points to bring up in an article about left wing hypocrisy. The left constantly promotes direct voting and democracy except when the vote doesn’t go their way. I would also have to say having some direct voting for local issues is not a bad thing.

“By enacting SB 42, Colorado would pledge to give all of its electoral votes to whichever candidate wins the popular vote nationally”
In other words, this bill ignores the will of the voters in this state, and lets the other states decide who gets their Electoral College votes. Way to eliminate the power your state has!

Part One: Here’s my thoughts on this: Play by the rules or your votes do not count. This is just the latest wave of BS crying from the Dems. My GAWD, grow up. Since the very moment Mr. Trump won, the Dems have come up with one stunt after another to remove him or nullify his win. No wonder the president is so angry!!! I know I am. I did not think O should have won, I did not think he was even eligible, but no one I know went to such links to whine! The dems simply want to control us. They are the true dictators. Look at Queen Nancy and Slimy Shoe and how they are acting as if everyone must do what they think is right, regardless of laws and rights. O Care all over again. “I don’t care what the People want, WE know what is good for them!”

continued This is their MO and apparently the press and every liberal state. By their actions on this, they show me that they do not care about the rest of the People’s right to have their vote counted and matter. The EC is a fair system, it allows for all citizens in this country. But fair is not a part of their vocabulary nor their agenda. If they really gave a crap about the GOV closure and people soon to miss a paycheck (they haven’t yet), then Nancy and Chuck would say okay, we will deal with the president, honor our word (that would be a new thing with their constant Lucy with the Football crap) and strike a deal. Nope, they don’t care except to try to get votes. As to this latest attack on the EC, time to do some resisting of our own. That is also the problem, most conservatives give or do not have time to resist and protest. Sorry for the long and mostly off topic post. I am livid with these fools. I wonder if the People can sue Congress for their lack of working together. Once you are voted in, you should meet in the middle but nope, never. They all make me just furious.

Obviously the democrats in CO haven’t thought this through – regardless they can want and stomp their feet all they want, it takes more than one state. Anyway, if there was no electoral college there would only need to be elections in NY, CA, TX and Florida. The rest of the states need not play as they won’t have any skin in the game so to speak. Stupid communist democrats.

Those morons must not know that it takes a Constitutional Amendment to change the Constitution and that takes the votes of 2/3 of the states, and they aren’t even close. I would be all right with changing that, IF we went to a one state, one vote system where each state has one vote and however that state went with their popular vote is the way that state would vote in the College, but the Demecrap socialists won’t go for that because it would take away their advantage. To hell with them. They refer to most of us as “fly over states” anyway, meaning we don’t really count. Piss on them. We counted in 2016 didn’t we, and in 2020 we are going to count even more, and it doesn’t matter how much crooked money the Demecraps spend. Crooked Hillary Clinton spent several times more money than President Trump and we whipped heII out of her. Hopefully their money and smear tactics are becoming more and more ineffective, and that is a good thing.

I agree, one state, one vote. And no Oh look we found more ballots in a trash can etc. We have election laws and rules, perhaps it is time to adhere to them. This keep counting until you get the result you want needs to stop.

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ltuser

3:44 pm January 10, 2019 at 3:44 pm

Which is why i keep saying. WE SHOULD STOP all that recount nonsense. IF there’s issues in the vote count. DO A REVOTE.

Illegally officiates the change of our country from a Constitutional Republic (rule of law) to a Democracy (mob rule) with the scales tilted by over 50 million criminal invaders on the CPUSA aka Democrat Party’s plantation. Not on my watch!

It will complete the evolution of choosing leaders from the soap box to the ballot box to the bullet box.

Electing by the popular vote will end in a country like Venezuela. The candidate who promises the most “stuff” will win, and those who have some modicum of common fiscal sense will pay the price. If you want long lines for toilet paper, and bread, have the government elected by popular vote. This is a Republic, not a democracy, and the states elect the President, not the general populous.

The “leadership” of the Democrat party consists of those who slept through all of their high school civics classes and are thus condemned to repeat the same stupid mistakes that have been (repeatedly) done in the past.
“Mob rule doesn’t work.”
“Socialism doesn’t work.”
“Tax and spend doesn’t work.”
Yet they want to try it yet again…and again…and again.
“Stupid is as stupid does.” -Forrest Gump
“Insanity is doing the same thing in the same way and then expecting a different result.” -Albert Einstein

Living in a state that is lightly populated the removal of the Electoral College would result in our state never having any say whatsoever in the election of the President. We are not alone. Look at that map…the vast majority of the country is red and the blues want to wrestle control and influence away from the reds.

First president to face election by electoral college; George Washington! That’s right we have never elected a president by popular vote, and I pray that we never will. I live in Washington state and wish we electoral college at a state level, wouldn’t it be nice if rural counties carried the same weight on state wide issues as densely populated suburban (liberal) areas?

All the commenters talking about a constitutional amendment missed the point. This system Colorado and others skirt the constitution. The constitution allows each state to allocate it’s electoral votes in any manner they wish. So, if they join together with other states in the manner they describe, it’s probably legal. That’s what makes it so scary.
The Supreme Court would eventually have to decide on it’s constitutionality.

The bill proposed would only affect Colorado. It would work to subvert the electoral college without eliminating it. The people who should be upset are the citizens of Colorado. If this bill passes it will mean that their vote won’t count unless it is in agreement with the popular vote in the nation. If the popular vote is Democrat, all of Colorado’s electoral votes would go to the Democrat candidate even Colorado voted Republican and vice versa.

No it wouldn’t. Since Colorado would join a compact of 12 other jurisdictions, including: Maryland; New Jersey; Hawaii; Illinois; Washington; Massachusetts; California; Vermont; Rhode Island; New York; Connecticut; and Washington, D.C.
It would affect a LOT more than just Colorado…

Those that want to do away with the electoral college have no idea of why we have it in the first place. Thank God it’s written into the constitution!
If we eliminate it, our Republic is gone and we have mob rule!

The CPUSA aka Democrat Party is doing everything possible to nullify our votes which legally elected Donald J. Trump POTUS. Fifty three years ago I took an oath; “I, (NAME), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.”
I was never released from that oath. Donald J. Trump is my President.

Could save a candidate much time and money, just campaign in the large cities in a few states. Promise them the moon and more, have the rest of the country pay for what they promised. What could possibly go wrong, go wrong go wrong?

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